Jan 1st - International Year of ElderlyJan 1st - The Euro currency is introduced.Jan 2nd - A brutal snowstorm smashes into the Midwestern United States, causing 14 inches (359 mm) of snow in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and 19 inches (487 mm) in Chicago, where temperatures plunge to -13°F (-25°C); 68 deaths are reported.Jan 3rd - Israel detains, and later expels, 14 members of Concerned Christians.Jan 3rd - The Mars Polar Lander was launched.Jan 4th - Former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura is sworn in as governor of Minnesota.Jan 4th - Gunmen open fire on Shiite Muslims worshipping in an Islamabad mosque, killing 16 people and injuring 25.Jan 7th - Impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton begins in the US Senate.Jan 10th - 25th People's Choice Awards: Tom Hanks & Sandra Bullock win (Dramatic Motion Picture) and Tim Allen & Helen Hunt win (TV)Jan 10th - Fatboy Slim (Norman Cook) achieves his third UK No.1 single with 'Praise You'Actor James GandolfiniJan 10th - "The Sopranos", starring James Gandolfini as mobster Tony Soprano, debuts on HBOJan 11th - 26th American Music Award: Celine Dion & Eric Clapton winJan 11th -Marty Schottenheimer resigns as head coach of the Kansas City ChiefsJan 13th - Basketball player Michael Jordan announces his retirement only to return in 2001Jan 15th - The Racak incident: 45 Albanians in the Kosovo village of Racak are killed by Yugoslav security forces.Jan 17th - "The Miss", Minnesota Viking placekicker Gary Anderson had become the first kicker in history to finish the regular season without missing a field goal or extra point attempt, but misses a field goal late in the fourth quarter of the NFC Championship Game, allowing the Atlanta Falcons to tie the game and eventually win it in overtimeBasketball Superstar Michael JordanJan 20th - The China News Service announces new government restrictions on Internet use aimed especially at Internet cafés.Jan 21st - In one of the largest drug busts in American history, the US Coast Guard intercepts a ship carrying 4,300 kg of cocaine.Jan 22nd - Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons are burned alive by radical Hindus while sleeping in their car in Eastern India.Jan 25th - After an inquiry into a corruption scandal, 6 International Olympic Committee members are expelledJan 25th - Earthquake hits Colombia, South America, killing around 300 and injuring 1000Jan 31st -Seth MacFarlane's "Family Guy" first airs on FoxFeb 3rd - In Jammu and Kashmir the political party Democratic Janata Dal (Jammu and Kashmir) is revived.Feb 4th - MV New Carissa runs aground near Coos Bay, Oregon.Actor Seth MacFarlaneFeb 4th - Unarmed West African immigrant Amadou Diallo is shot dead by four plainclothes New York City police officers on an unrelated stake-out, inflaming race-relations in the city.Feb 6th - NFL Pro Bowl: AFC beats NFC 23-10Feb 7th - Crown Prince Abdullah becomes the King of Jordan on the death of his father, King Hussein.Feb 12th - US President Bill Clinton acquitted by the Senate in his impeachment trialFeb 12th - Scientists warn about harmful impacts on health of genetically modified (GM) foodFeb 15th - Abdullah Öcalan, leader of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party, widely recognized as terrorist organization), was arrested in Kenya.Feb 15th - 7th ESPY Awards: Mark McGwire, Chamique Holdsclaw winMLB First Baseman Mark McGwireFeb 16th - O.J. Simpson's 1968 Heisman Trophy is sold for $230,000 to help settle a $33.5 million civil judgement against Simpson for the deaths of his ex-wife and her friendFeb 16th - Across Europe, Kurdish rebels take over embassies and hold hostages after Turkey arrested one of their rebel leaders, Abdullah Öcalan.Feb 23rd - Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Öcalan is charged with treason in Ankara, Turkey.Feb 23rd - An avalanche destroys the Austrian village of Galtür, killing 31.Feb 23rd - Hip Hop artist Eminem releases his first major record album 'The Slim Shady LP' (Grammy 2000 - Rap album)Feb 24th - The State of Arizona executes Karl LaGrand, a German national involved in an armed robbery, in spite of Germany's legal action to attempt to save him.Feb 24th - A China Southern Airlines Tupolev TU-154 airliner crashes on approach to Wenzhou airport in eastern the People's Republic of China, killing 61.Singer-Songwriter Lauryn HillFeb 24th - 41st Grammy Awards: My Heart Will Go On (Love Theme From Titanic), Lauryn Hill winsFeb 26th - 15th Soap Opera Digest Awards - General Hospital winsFeb 27th - Olusegun Obasanjo becomes Nigeria's first elected president since mid-1983.Feb 27th - Korea International School is founded by Soon-Il Chung. It is currently directed by Ann Clapper.Mar 5th - Paul Okalik is elected first Premier of Nunavut.Mar 8th - The Supreme Court of the United States upholds the murder convictions of Timothy McVeigh for the Oklahoma City bombing.Mar 11th - Infosys becomes the first Indian company listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange.Mar 12th - Former Warsaw Pact members the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland join NATO.Mar 15th - Pluto again becomes outermost planetMar 20th - Legoland California, the first and only Legoland outside of Europe, opens in Carlsbad, California.Mar 20th - 19th Golden Raspberry Awards: An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn winsMar 21st - Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones become the first to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon.Actress Gwyneth PaltrowMar 21st - 71st Academy Awards - "Shakespeare in Love", Roberto Benigni & Gwyneth Paltrow winMar 23rd - Gunmen assassinate Paraguay's Vice President Luis María Argaña.Mar 24th - Kosovo War: NATO commences air bombardment against Yugoslavia, marking the first time NATO has attacked a sovereign country.Mar 24th - Mont Blanc Tunnel Fire: 39 people die when a Belgian transport truck carrying flour and margarine caught fire in the Mont Blanc Tunnel.Mar 25th - 13th Soul Train Music Awards: Luther Vandross, R. Kelly & Lauryn Hill winMar 26th - The "Melissa worm" infects Microsoft word processing and e-mail systems around the world.Mar 26th - A jury in Michigan finds Dr. Jack Kevorkian guilty of second-degree murder for administering a lethal injection to a terminally ill man.Mar 28th - 18th NCAA Women's Basketball Championship: at San JoseMar 29th - 61st NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: at ThunderDome St PetersburgMar 29th - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at 10006.78 - above the 10,000 mark for the first time ever.Actress Julia StilesMar 31st - "10 Things I Hate About You", a modernization of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, starring Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger, is releasedApr 1st - Nunavut is established as a Canadian territory carved out of the eastern part of the Northwest Territories.Apr 5th - Two Libyans suspected of bringing down Pan Am flight 103 in 1988 are handed over for eventual trial in the Netherlands.Apr 7th - The World Trade Organisation rules in favor of the United States in its long-running trade dispute with the European Union over bananas.Apr 8th - Haryana Gana Parishad, a political party in the Indian state of Haryana, merges with the Indian National Congress.Apr 9th - Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara, President of Niger, is assassinated.Apr 11th - 63rd Golf Masters Championship: José María Olazábal wins, shooting a 28042nd US President Bill ClintonApr 12th - US President Bill Clinton is cited for contempt of court for giving "intentionally false statements" in a sexual harassment civil lawsuit.Apr 14th - NATO mistakenly bombs a convoy of ethnic Albanian refugees - Yugoslav officials say 75 people are killed.Apr 14th - A severe hailstorm strikes Sydney, Australia causing A$1.7 billion in insured damages, the most costly natural disaster in Australian history.Apr 18th -Wayne Gretzky plays his last game in the NHL, as his New York Rangers lose 2-1 to the Pittsburgh PenguinsApr 19th - The German Bundestag returns to Berlin.Apr 20th - Columbine High School massacre: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold kill 13 people and injure 24 others before committing suicide at Columbine High School located in Jefferson County, Colorado.Apr 29th - Avala TV Tower near Belgrade is destroyed in NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.Ice Hockey Great Wayne GretzkyApr 30th - Cambodia joins the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bringing the total members to 10.May 1st - 125th Kentucky Derby: Chris Antley aboard Charismatic wins in 2:03.29May 2nd - Panamanian election, 1999: Mireya Moscoso becomes the first woman to be elected President of Panama.May 2nd -John Elway announces his retirement from the NFLMay 3rd - Oklahoma City, Oklahoma is slammed by an F5 tornado killing forty-two people, injuring 665, and causing $1 billion in damage. The tornado was one of 66 from the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak.May 3rd - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 11,000 for the first time in its history at 11,014.70.May 3rd - Stephen Hendry defeats Mark Williams 18-11 to win the World Snooker Championship for a record seventh time.May 5th - 34th Academy of Country Music Awards: Garth Brooks, Faith Hill & Tim McGraw winsCountry Music Singer and Songwriter Garth BrooksMay 7th - Kosovo War: In Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, three Chinese citizens are killed and 20 wounded when a NATO aircraft bombs the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.May 7th - In Guinea-Bissau, President João Bernardo Vieira is ousted in a military coup.May 7th - Pope John Paul II travels to Romania becoming the first pope to visit a predominantly Eastern Orthodox country since the Great Schism in 1054.May 7th - A jury finds The Jenny Jones Show and Warner Bros. liable in the shooting death of Scott Amedure, after the show purposely deceived Jonathan Schmitz to appear on a secret same-sex crush episode. Schmitz later killed Amedure and the jury awarded Amedure's family $25 million USD.May 8th - Nancy Mace becomes the first female cadet to graduate from The Citadel military college.May 12th - Sir David Steel becomes the first Presiding Officer (speaker) of the modern Scottish Parliament.264th Pope John Paul IIMay 15th - 125th Preakness: Chris Antley aboard Charismatic wins in
1:55.20May 21st - All My Children star Susan Lucci finally wins a Daytime Emmy after being nominated 19 times, the longest period of unsuccessful nominations in television historyMay 24th - Venezuela enters the Antarctic Treaty System.May 25th - The United States House of Representatives releases the Cox Report which details the People's Republic of China's nuclear espionage against the U.S. over the prior two decades.May 27th - The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands indicts Slobodan Milošević and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo.May 28th - In Milan, Italy, after 22 years of restoration work, Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece "The Last Supper" is put back on display.Painter, Scientist & Visionary Leonardo da VinciMay 28th - Two Swedish police officers are murdered with their own fire arms by the bank robbers Jackie Arklöv and Tony Olsson after a dramatic car chase.May 29th - Olusegun Obasanjo takes office as President of Nigeria, the first elected and civilian head of state in Nigeria after 16 years of military rule.May 29th - Space Shuttle Discovery completes the first docking with the International Space Station.May 30th - Indianapolis 500: Kenny Bräck wins in 3:15:51.182 (246.513 km/h)Jun 2nd - The Bhutan Broadcasting Service brings television transmissions to the Kingdom for the first time.Jun 5th - 131st Belmont: Jose Santos aboard Lemon Drop Kid wins in 2:27.88Jun 6th - 53rd Tony Awards: Fosse & Side Man winJun 6th - In Australian Rules Football, Tony Lockett breaks the record for career goals, previously 1299 by Gordon Coventry and which had stood since 1937.Jun 6th - At the Putim maximum security prison in Brazil, 345 prisoners run from the main gate in the largest jailbreak in Brazilian history, marking the 10th escape for the three-year-old facility. In the ensuing manhunt, two fugitives are killed and five innocent bystanders are accidentally jailed.Jun 9th - Kosovo War: the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and North Atlantic Treaty Organization sign a peace treaty.Jun 10th - Kosovo War: NATO suspends its air strikes after Slobodan Milošević agrees to withdraw Serbian forces from Kosovo.Jun 12th - Kosovo War: Operation Joint Guardian begins - a NATO-led United Nations peacekeeping force KFor enters the province of Kosovo in Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.Jun 16th - Thabo Mbeki is elected 2nd President of a democratic South AfricaHorror Author Stephen KingJun 19th - At about 4:30 pm, Stephen King is hit by a car on the shoulder of Route 5, in Lovell, Maine. He would suffer numerous injuries, including a collapsed right lung, multiple fractures of his right leg, scalp laceration and a broken hipJun 20th - 99th US Golf Open: Payne Stewart shoots a 279 at Pinehurst CCJun 22nd - Former Mpumalanga premier, Ndaweni Mahlangu causes a storm within political circles with his now infamous statement, "It is acceptable for politicians to lie", South AfricaJun 25th - 53rd NBA Championship: San Antonio Spurs beat New York Knicks, 4 games to 1Jun 25th - In his first state of the nation address, South African President Thabo Mbeki promises to tackle rampaging crime; the nation's murder rate is the third highest in the world and more than 49,000 cases of rape were reported in 1998Golfer and Three-Time Major Championship Winner Payne StewartJun 27th - ATB go to No.1 on the UK singles chart with '9pm, Till I Come'Jun 27th - The Chemical Brothers go to No.1 on the UK album chart with 'Surrender', their second No.1 albumJun 27th - 45th LPGA Championship won by Juli InksterJul 1st - The Scottish Parliament is officially opened by Queen Elizabeth on the day powers are officially transferred from the old Scottish Office in London to the new devolved Scottish Executive in Edinburgh.Jul 4th - 106th Wimbledon Women's Tennis: Lindsay Davenport beats Steffi Graf (6-4 7-5)Jul 4th - 113th Wimbledon Men's Tennis: Pete Sampras beats Andre Agassi (6-3 6-4 7-5)Jul 6th - U.S. Army private Barry Winchell dies from baseball-bat injuries inflicted in his sleep the previous day by fellow soldiers for his relationship with transgendered showgirl and former Navy combat medic, Calpernia Addams.Jul 8th - Allen Lee Davis is executed by electrocution by the state of Florida, the last use of the electric chair for capital punishment in Florida.Tennis Player Pete SamprasJul 8th - "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" the 3rd book of the series by J. K. Rowling is published by Bloomsbury in the UKJul 9th - Days of student protests begin after Iranian police and hardliners attack a student dormitory at the University of Tehran.Jul 11th - 20th US Seniors Golf Open: at Des Moines GC, W Des Moines, IowaJul 13th - 70th All Star Baseball Game: AL wins 4-1 at Fenway Park, BostonJul 15th - The inaugural game at the Seattle Mariners' Safeco Field was held in Seattle, Washington.Jul 15th - Scientists uncover possible reason for SS Waratah's disappearance 100 years later; The SS Waratah was a luxury steamer which did not reach its destination in 1909, and no trace of the wreckage was ever foundJul 16th -John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette are killed in a plane crash off the coast of Martha's Vineyard. The Piper Saratoga aircraft was piloted by Kennedy.Publisher and Lawyer John F. Kennedy Jr.Jul 18th - 128th British Golf Open: at Carnoustie Scot Paul Lawrie wins after play offJul 20th - Falun Gong is banned in the People's Republic of China, and a large scale crackdown of the practice is launched.Jul 22nd - Woodstock 99 music festival begins Griffiss Park, Rome NY (till 25th) attended by 200,000. Ended due to violence.Jul 23rd - Crown Prince Mohammed Ben Al-Hassan is crowned King Mohammed VI of Morocco on the death of his father.Jul 23rd - ANA Flight 61 is hijacked in Tokyo, Japan.Jul 25th - 54th US Women's Open Golf ChampionshipJul 27th -Tony Hawk is the first skateboarder to land a "900"Jul 31st - Discovery Program: Lunar Prospector - NASA intentionally crashes the spacecraft into the Moon, thus ending its mission to detect frozen water on the moon's surface.Actor Haley Joel OsmentAug 2nd - "The Sixth Sense", starring Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, and Haley Joel Osment, premieresAug 9th - Russian President Boris Yeltsin fires his Prime Minister, Sergei Stepashin, and for the fourth time fires his entire cabinet.Aug 9th - The Diet of Japan enacts a law establishing the Hinomaru and Kimi Ga Yo as the official national flag and national anthem.Aug 9th - Charles Kennedy wins the race to succeed Paddy Ashdown as the leader of the Liberal Democrats, UKAug 11th - Total solar eclipse in India-North -France (2m23s)Aug 11th - The Salt Lake City Tornado tears through the downtown district of the city, killing one.Aug 12th -Shakira records her first live album in New York City, titled "MTV Unplugged"Singer ShakiraAug 15th - Beni Ounif massacre in Algeria; some 29 people are killed at a false roadblock near the Moroccan border, leading to temporary tensions with Morocco.Aug 15th - 81st PGA Championship: Tiger Woods shoots a 277 at Medinah Country ClubAug 17th - A 7.4-magnitude earthquake strikes İzmit, Turkey, killing more than 17,000 and injuring 44,000.Aug 19th - In Belgrade tens of thousands of Serbians rally to demand the resignation of Slobodan Milošević as president of the Federal Republic of YugoslaviaAug 26th - Michael Johnson breaks the 400 metres world record with a time of 43.18 seconds.Aug 30th - East Timorese vote for independence in a referendum.Golfer Tiger WoodsAug 31st - The first of a series of apartment bombings in Moscow, killing one person and wounding 40 others.Aug 31st - A LAPA Boeing 737-200 crashes during takeoff from Jorge Newbury Airport in Buenos Aires, killing 65, including 2 on the ground.